Life Insurance Policy: Online v/s Agents

Life insurance should be purchased from an agent or online. Well, it is one such very common thought that comes into the mind of every buyer who is willing to buy a life insurance. However, these days, buying the life insurance online has become very popular, but large number of people are still skeptical about how reliable as well as safe in actual it is.

However, if you are also interested to buy a life insurance policy, but still confused whether to buy from an agent or online, read this article further as it will help you to decide which option will suit you the best.

Online Insurance Purchase – Benefits

Ability to Draw Comparisons

If you buy a policy online, it gives you the opportunity to compare between the best of all the policies. You can easily compare different policies online which you cannot do when buying it from an insurance agent as he will insist you to the policy from his company.

Reaching Out to a Brand

When you prefer to buy an insurance online, you have the opportunity to reach out a brand, in fact a fully functional company that is accessible to you 24×7. While agents on the other hand could be unreachable or may go back, whereas the online life insurance companies cannot afford to do that.

No Fraud

With the help online facility, you can easily log on to the company's website, and can deeply indulge into its terms and conditions. In fact, for a safer side, you can even take the screen shot or keep the printouts with you as doing so reduces the possibility of fraud. While on the contrary, with insurance agents, it is obvious that they try to manipulate the terms and conditions, and try to influence your decision in the favor of their company. Whatever terms and conditions he will explain, you have no other option to just believe what he is saying. Whereas, in online you have the written proof of everything visible on your screen.

It would not be wrong to say that many life insurance policies/plans are almost 30%-70% cheaper as compared to offline. This is because no agents are involved here, thus eliminating the commission of the agent or intermediary costs.

Claim Settlement Ratio

When you buy a life insurance online, it is very obvious that you look the claim settlement ratio page. Yes, because it helps you understand which company is better to avail the policy from. While on the other hand, in case with offline, you have to depend on the agent so as to furnish the true information about the claim settlement of that company. In fact, very often, the agents will also try hard to sell the company they work with, instead of knowing the pitfalls when it comes to claim settlement ratio.

Flexibility, No Room for Errors

There is no denying on the fact that the online mode offers higher flexibility, and comes with wide range of options so as to help you to choose a best insurance plan. Whereas, the agent will not guide you about other policies offered by its competitors. You need to do your own thorough research. And, this could be a blessing in the online mode because in offline you have no other option than trusting the agent, and have to leave everything on him. And, while doing so there have been instances when the agents can misplace your information either intentionally or erroneously. Hence, such mistakes can turn out to be very costly in the future.

When it comes to online buying insurance policies, offering higher sum assured can sometimes be just an eyewash or may be a marketing tactic of the online insurance provider. It is very common to see a company claiming that you can easily avail a life insurance plan of 1 crore with just paying some monthly amount Rs. 500 or so. This offers seems lucrative to the customers, and they are tempted to purchase this plan even if they do not require it. Thus, this is where purchasing an offline life insurance policy could be far better as well as reasonable choice.

Rider Benefits

The online term plans provide you with the death benefit only, and they give you accidental death coverage at an additional premium. Moreover, many online plans generally do not give riders such as critical illness coverage, accidental death benefit, permanent disability benefit, etc.

How to Decide

If you are not feeling confident in order to go for the online insurance purchase, you can start by checking the details about the policy online. Many life insurance policies provide you with the toll-free numbers wherein you can call that number anytime, and clear your doubts. Moreover, after getting the clarification, you would have a clear picture that will put you in a better position so that you can easily take a calculative decision.

Concluding

Moreover. Convenience in the overall buying process, premiums due to lesser operational costs, minimal paperwork, quick access, higher transparency, ease in payment & renewable, well for all these reasons, the online mode of buying the life insurance wins over offline mode of buying through an agent.

However, one thing that needs to be mentioned here is the fact that irrespective of the chosen mode, it would be best for you to work out the correct insurance amount that you require before going further, and purchasing a policy. Not only this, in fact, you also need to make sure that you honestly declare all the details about your personal as well as family health history, if any.

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